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Last week, we mentioned Jimi Hendrix’s face lighting up on a dark stage – did you catch that? We were hoping to pique your interest, to make you say, “How on earth would Jimi Hendrix’s face light up and not the rest of the stage?” Well, it’s been a trade secret for a decade. But brace yourselves, because I’m about to reveal the secret to you, here, and now: Fairy dust

Had you going there, huh? Actually, it’s painted with special paint that glows iridescently under blacklight (and yes this is when you should have flashbacks to those velvet blacklight posters of the 60’s).
That’s right, after seeing a celebrity icon speed painted – 7 feet tall – in the time it takes for a normal person to gather their brushes and paints, one would think that would be enough, but not for Speed Painter Michael Ostaski, or The 3 Painters: they get the urge to bring fast painting to the next level, a rotating screen, loud and powerful music, and a canvas that electrifies to neon life under the glow of ultraviolet light; all come together in yet another amazingly unique speed painting experience.

Check out some of the ways they’ve been making it happen with blacklight!

We recently had the privilege of performing The 3 Painters speed painting show for an amazing group of people. Over the course of the event we paid tribute to several different groups of veterans, including many from WWII.

As part of our performance we painted a tribute to one of these groups, the Tuskegee Airmen. I can honestly say it was a thrill to speed paint a live tribute to these incredible men.

I was hoping to get a chance to meet one of them, and so I brought with me a smaller version of the live painting I had done for the performance. After our performance, I asked a gentleman who had been helping the Tuskegee Airmen throughout the evening if I might get one of them to sign it for me.

He told me the airmen had been amazed, and honored by the performance and would gladly sign it. I was then introduced to every Tuskegee airman at the event and each of them signed it for me! Being a history buff, I was on cloud nine.

The Honoring of American Heroes. Speed Painting Signed by the Tuskegee Airmen

Now, for those of you who don’t know who the Tuskegee Airmen are, or why I might be so excited about this, let me explain.

The Tuskegee airmen were the first African-American fighter pilots in the US military. They were a segregated unit, as we’re most at that time, and they trained at the army airbase at Tuskegee Alabama (hence the nickname). Many in the military fought this, claiming black men were incapable of anything as complicated as flying a fighter plane.

There were hearings in congress where many elected officials attacked them at every opportunity. But the Tuskegee men kept going. They fought the military, they fought congress, they fought the prejudices of virtually everyone they met both here an abroad. Eventually they were assigned to combat and flew escort to bomber planes. They were one of the most successful squads of the war.

Think about this for a moment. They were fighting the military, and their own government, not for any special treatment, but for the right to go out and fight and possibly die, FOR that same government and military.

If WWII represents the greatest generation, the the Tuskegee airmen are one of the finest examples of what made that generation great.

We just returned from a very successful engagement in Chattanooga. Over the course of four days we painted seven paintings, ranging from custom speed paintings of the company’s beloved founder and other of their top men, to Jimi Hendrix (painted upside down) and John Lennon, and ending with the corporate mascot. They loved it.

I love watching the audience reactions as the paintings develop. They have before them an artist with nothing more than paint and paper, black and empty, standing stark on the stage. And in mere minutes all is transformed into a work of art. It doesn’t matter how “sophisticated” their taste in art is. Some may yearn for Monet or Rodin, some may cherish album cover art, some are happy with dogs playing poker. It doesn’t matter what their taste is, their faces glow as the watch the painting develop before their eyes.

I realized some time ago, that it isn’t only the painting that enthralls, but the process as well. They aren’t merely looking at the world through the artist’s eyes, as we do when we gaze at some famous work, they are actually seeing it happen.

They are there for the moment of creation. They bear witness to a world seldom seen by any but the artist themselves. It is that moment that captivates as much or more than the final piece. It holds their attention as peer into a world of infinite possibilities. They not only get to see the world through the eyes of the artist, they get to experience that first moment when it comes to life.

This is why the speed painting live art shows are among my favorites. You get to bring the audience with you into fleeting world where action makes thought reality. It is a unique opportunity to open a door and invite the audience in so that, together, you can all experience that singular moment if creation.

Imagine, if you will, a wooded arena. The sun is casting its last dim rays on a modern cornucopia and fog is billowed into the area, controlled by the touch of a button. A girl, young but wise beyond her years slyly watches as the symbol of rebellion, the Mockingjay, rises in minutes.

Pretty cool, huh? That’s the basic layout of Michael Ostaski’s most recent video shoot, a Hunger-Games-themed extravaganza. Shot in New Mexico, the landscape resembles that of a Hunger Games arena – wooded, with small sources of water and weather that changes from hot to cold and back again in the blink of an eye. The set was brilliant, and bloomed and evolved as it was being built – the fog pipe that was in the final cut wasn’t always there, but through a flash of brilliance it was a spectacular layer of ambiance that added volumes to the atmosphere (figuratively AND literally!).

As great as the video looks, that’s not to say we didn’t experience a few setbacks in the filming. After the first take, our fire extinguisher ran out of extinguishing stuff, resulting in an exciting, communal fire dance until we could get the hose to the painting. Also, after the sun disappeared, it began to get quite cold (sort of like a real arena).

Through it all, we managed to come out on top with this beauty – check it out – and may the odds be ever in your favor.

First of all, BIG congratulations to the USA Women’s field hockey team, both for qualifying for the Olympics, but also for a great finish against Argentina in a four-game series that was even televised on NBC Sports Network.

Speed painter Michael Ostaski (along-side popular corporate act The Pink Flamingos) was invited to perform at an event that the team held, a celebratory gathering of friends, family of the athletes, coaches, sponsors, past, current and future olympians, etc., and what a gathering it was!

London 2012!!

To begin the entertainment, Michael painted a larger than life patriotic portrait, with superb singer Ashley King providing the grand, vocal finale, and then the Pink Flamingos took over.

A little later, Michael wowed with another painting, this time of the London 2012 Olympics logo. After he finished this 2nd masterpiece, the Olympic march began to play and the band members lined up along the tables of the athletes- coach Lee Bodimeade introduced each Olympian one by one to the crowd and called them to the stage, and confetti followed each one as they ascended.

It rained confetti and splendor.

Once all of the athletes were on stage, the emcee brought back Michael for one final time, painting a field hockey player, and then spectacularly revealing the names of the 16 qualifying athletes while they watched from their spots on stage.

“We made the Olympic Team!”

Once Michael finished his third and last painting, the Olympians lifted a giant American flag and held it along the stage’s edge – and Ashley sang the National Anthem all by himself, no instruments, no track, just his stirring voice and a couple thousand listening ears.

Even a fiercely loyal Canadian couldn’t help but feel like a Patriot.

The National Anthem a la King

After he finished, the athletes tore off the stage and began to party, as The Pink Flamingos took center stage for a highly interactive dance.

This was a great opportunity for Michael (whom calling a “sports fan” would be the understatement of the century, by the way) to blend two seemingly unrelated mediums together – two mediums he loves. He did it once back in 2008 for Beijing, did it again this year for London, and he’s ready for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics – ready when you are, Olympians!

The hardest thing about flying to Madrid was the timing of our flight. We left Chicago at about 4:30 pm, flew for 8 hours and landed in Madrid at 7:30 am the next morning. We had missed an entire night. Going a night without sleep is no big deal when you are in college, but tends to wear on you a bit as you get older.

We stayed in the Ritz Madrid. This is an incredible hotel, built a hundred years ago by the king of Spain with intention of making it a centerpiece of Madrid.

This was done in an effort to make Madrid a city to rival any in Europe. The hotel is truly a masterpiece. Marble floors give way to inlaid wood while walls run seamlessly from curved statued alcoves to gilded mirrors.

But really small.

The elevators held three adults, or two and a couple of bags. The rooms had enough room to get around the bed but no more and a small desk at the end. The dressers were antique wood and the bathroom, of course, featured a bidet. Europeans are very civilized in this way.

We didn’t explore very far the first day, mostly we tried to rest since we had a 5 am call the next morning. We couldn’t set up the night before because there was a wedding in the ballroom that night.
5 o’clock I got down to the ballroom to discover that the last of the wedding party was just leaving. These people take their parties very seriously. They also like late nights. In fact, many restaurants did not even open for supper until after 8:30, and some as late as 10. That’s when they opened mind you. The ballroom was incredibly tight, as they packed people into it.

But the performance went great. Everyone loved it and there was already talk about having us back.

Now we had a couple of days to explore Madrid. Madrid has that classic old European architecture. Mostly narrow roads, none of which ran straight, with old buildings painted earthy hues of rose, yellow, orange and tan. The sun found its way through the buildings to make one side of the street sparkle and the other settle into a comfortable glow of reflected light. Like most European cities, Madrid is beautiful. In fact there are numerous artists in the various plazas painting scenes from the city. I have one such painting now hanging in my office.
And so we ventured out into the city. We were armed with a few euros and just enough Spanglish to get ourselves into trouble. Fortunately, we did not.
Our first order of business was to find food. We found a couple of restaurants that looked promising but they didn’t open until much later. Then we found it.
As far as we could tell this was the most popular chain of eateries in Madrid. It was simple, inexpensive and pretty tasty. It was called Museo del Jamon.

In English that would be, the Ham Museum. No, I am not making that up.

You could have whatever you wanted, as long as it was ham. Don’t get me wrong, the ham was very tasty. They served it very thinly sliced, and only a slice or two, on a small baguette. This cost about a euro, or just over a dollar.

Something else we had discovered on our journey around the city was that nearly all of the restaurants had exactly the same menu. And from what I could tell the same photographer (bad photographer) took the pictures that they posted in their windows. It seemed they went out of their way to make the food look bad. They didn’t really have to go far though. Basically you could get some form of ham and bread, pickled or fried fish and octopus. That was pretty much it.
After a few meals of this, in desperation I got a hamburger at one small bar. I should have stuck with the ham.
There was no bun and while I am sure the meat was, well meat, I could not have identified the animal it came from.

Madrid is a beautiful city but it did take a little getting used to. For instance, I am not sure I understood the Spanish sense of humor. In the Plaza Mayor there are a lot of various street performers and there were many that I simply did not understand.
There was Fat Spider Man, Scary Deer/Ram, Dead guy with an Axe, Head on a Box and a few others. These are the names we gave them, I have no idea what they called themselves.
Take Scary Deer for instance. This was someone wearing a deer’s (or maybe a ram) head, apparently kneeling down, and the rest of their body was covered with a mylar “rain curtain”. The mouth moved and when it did it made a loud clapping sort of sound. It did this any time anyone got too close. This had the general effect of scaring people away. People would try to get their kids to stand next to it to take a picture and this thing would start clacking and shacking. The kids would jump and scream and try to run away, while the parents would be trying just as hard to drag them back over to get their picture taken.
I am sure this cut back considerably on the tips the performer was able to get. I pictured them looking at a nearly empty jar at the end of the day and thinking to themselves, tomorrow I will just have to make the head clap louder!

We found a bar on the plaza that didn’t charge much for wine or beer and whenever you ordered they also gave you a small plate of something. One time is nuts, another time it was pickled sardines. The bartender never smiled but he remembered what we were drinking whenever we walked in.

Eventually we relaxed into the scene that was Madrid. We sat in the Plaza Mayor with our wine, ate our ham and bread and laughed at the tourists that got too close to the Scary Deer. And as the sun would begin to go down the buildings would start to glow and the old artist’s eyes would come alive. Later that night we knew we would wander out and have supper, sometime around 10, and the ham would be just fine.

We somehow, at some time, found the rhythm of Madrid.

Jeff Smith is a speed painter and technician for the Speed-Painting Thrill act, “The 3 Painters”, and onsite coordinator for “Michael Ostaski’s Art Explosion!”. For questions regarding these acts and speed painting questions in general, Jeff can be reached here. Any other questions?

Michael Ostaski LOVES painting for sports fans – they’re one of the most passionate and vocal audiences that any performer could hope for: they cheer, they yell, they jump out of their seats and get into it! Just like Michael.

And athletics’ fans are eager for artistry, the leap to the basket, the blur at the finish line, the sailing drop of sweat, and Michael, one of the most versatile fast painters, strives to capture the drama in a wild 7 minute surge of paint on canvas. Basket after touchdown after home run after photo finishes… major sports fans, from the NBA to NASCAR to the Olympics, love it; it’s a rush, and they hunger for it.

But let’s not forget about the “P” word: pressure. Sporting events are all about it. For performing artists its one of the highest-pressure situations they will ever face. Take, for instance the performance that Michael did for the Chicago Bulls (actually, performances for most basketball games are very similar to this) – when performing for a basketball halftime, you have one of the shortest performance slots in the biz – 6 minutes to be exact. That’s six minutes to tarp the court, bring out the canvas and paint supplies, paint the painting, take off all the supplies and canvas, and then refold the tarp remove it as well (keep in mind that on average, Michael takes between 6 and 7 minutes to paint a portrait; this does not include setup or breakdown times). Oh, did we mention that if we were to get even a drop of paint on the court, it would be a foul for the home team and delay the game, most likely resulting in a fan riot? Ok, probably not, but we’ve never been willing risk it! Stressful? To say the least. But worth it? Absolutely!

We don’t just love performing, we love the opportunity to travel, inspire, and meet some cool people -like the Brain Urlacher (of Chicago Bears fame), Reggie Miller (one of only 5 to have his jersey number retired by the Indiana Pacers), and Yao Ming (Houston’s Chinese super-tall super-star) sort of cool people. And we’ve painted at all sorts of sports, too – golf, football, you name it. We’ve even done paintings for the Olympics!

The point is, sports and fast painting actually have a lot in common; high-energy, excitement, and a great rally for people to come together. What could be better than being a part of, and then watching, a good-natured and spirited sport, whatever it may be?

One of the best ways to boost your brand, deliver your company’s message clearly or even express your organization’s mission is through the use of live art performance painting or fast/speed painting.

One of our amazing acts is called Art Explosion, where the outstanding Michael Ostaski paints huge, elaborate paintings in less than 7 minutes. Now that you’ve hired Michael (or another fast painter) for your next event, the incomparable Lisa DeWolf shares with us her inside tips on how to make yours the most successful event it can be.

Use your fast painter to the best of their abilities.

Lisa says that the first thing to consider is how can you creatively use your newly hired speed painter. Consider the event that the painter is performing at – is it an award ceremony? Instead of simply announcing who the winner of the big sales competition is, have your speed painter…

Speed painting – what a fantastic performance art. It really is one of the most versatile corporate entertainment acts available today. So, you’ve decided to hire yourself a speed painter for your next corporate event? Good Choice! Before you rush into hiring the first speed painter you find, here’s some advice from our show designer, Lisa DeWolf, to help you pick the best painter to meet your needs.

First and foremost, make sure you like their work!

Reputable speed painters will have a portfolio of work that they’ve done live in the average speed-painter’s time frame (6-10 minutes). And, more often than not, you can easily view their work online. So, view it! Make sure that you like the caliber of their work – what you see is a good indication of what you’ll get in a live performance.